Hunt, The
by Nyias
Summary: Bob and Dot ReBoot to the forms of Jarod and Miss Parker in a mysterious game where one is the hunter and the other is the hunted. This is an extremely silly ReBoot/Pretender crossover, so don't say you weren't warned! :-)


Author's note: The Pretender belongs to NBC and 20th Century Fox, ReBoot belongs to Mainframe Entertainment. Please don't sue me, I'm only borrowing everyone and I'll give them back as soon as the story is finished!

This story is rated G, suitable for all audiences. It is also very, very silly.

If you are wondering what ReBoot is, you will be more than a little bit lost and I suggest that you find a website about it or watch the program before you try reading this. It's geared more towards ReBoot than it is toward Pretender (but please don't think that I'm more ReBoot initiated than Pretender initiated. I know much more of the inner workings of Pretender than I do of ReBoot). If you really can't be bothered to find anything ReBoot related, the main point is that it's set inside a computer. If you don't know what Pretender is, catch an episode of it on TNT, every weekday! 

And now, here is the story:   
  
The Hunt

by Nyias

It was normal, or at least as normal as it ever got around Mainframe. Bob, Dot, and Enzo were sitting around Dot's Diner, as bored as could be.

"I hope a Game drops soon," said Enzo, out of the blue.

Dot looked at him, exasperated. "I wish you wouldn't say that, Enzo," she said. "You know the games are dangerous. Any one of us could be nullified if we lost a Game."

"I know, sis," said Enzo sadly. "But I still wish that you two would let me into the games. I could win! You just have to trust me."

Bob put his hand on Enzo's shoulder. "Hey, lighten up. Maybe someday you'll be a Guardian. Then you won't have anyone at all to tell you not to go into the Games. Sound good?"

"Yeah!" cheered Enzo, slurping up the end of his energy shake.

Bob looked out the window. "I'm going to go see if anything's up with MegaByte. It looks like there may be a problem with something in there." He was using his thumb to point out the window, towards Hack and Slash, who were quickly approaching.

"Uh oh," mumbled Enzo, wondering what would have to be happening for Hack and Slash to be out of MegaByte's immediate sight.

Bob jumped up from the booth and went to the door, opening it and bounding out, before Hack and Slash could come in and wreak havoc on Dot's business.

"Bob!" yelled Slash.

"It's the Guardian!" called out Hack.

"Guardian Bob!" called both of them at the same time.

Bob smiled. "You have come to see Guardian Bob, I do see." Bob was the Guardian of Mainframe. As a Guardian, his job was to protect the city from viruses, web portals, net connections, and Games.

Games were things that dropped at random from the sky. They were played by the User, who apparently lived outside the net and inputted the games for pleasure. No one was quite sure why the games really dropped, but they were one of the deadliest things that could happen to an untrained sprite.

If you were caught inside the game cube, you had to beat the user to the end of the game, or kill the user. If you didn't, you were nullified. Guardians were the only really well trained sprites that knew exactly how to win the games. Other sprites, like Dot, learned from experiencing them, with a Guardian still there to help.

Hack looked uneasily at Bob. Finally he said very quietly, "MegaByte's up to something with Herr Docktor. It looks weird. Can you come see what it is?"

Bob nearly laughed. "I can't just waltz into MegaByte's lair and see what he's doing with Herr Docktor," he said. "Sorry."

Slash looked at him, worried. Bob glared back. Before long, they were in a staring contest. Hack took the opportunity to sneak into Dot's Diner and kidnap Enzo.

"What are you doing?" asked Enzo as Hack picked him up and flew out the door.

"Making sure that we don't get hurt with MegaByte's new idea," he answered all-knowingly.

Enzo, knowing how stupid both the pair were, just nodded. "Whatever you say, Hack."

Bob's head snapped from the stare of Slash to see Hack making off with Dot's little brother. "Oh, no," he said, wishing that he didn't have to deal with this sort of thing right at the time.

Slash looked up in amazement. "I think that Hack just kidnapped Enzo," he said.

Bob turned back to Slash. "What, exactly, is MegaByte doing with Herr Docktor?" he asked.

"Well, we're no too sure, but I think that they're trying to develop a game to drop on the city that you just can't win."

"What do you mean?" asked Bob, perplexed.

"Well, don't tell MegaByte, but Hack and I were listening to MegaByte and Herr Docktor and they were saying that Herr Docktor had to try to make a game that one sprite is the real sprite, and one sprite turns into the User or something like that. That way, at least one of two sprites are deleted."

Bob shook his head. "That's impossible," he said.

"Well," said Slash, "If it is, Hack just kidnapped Enzo for no reason. I'll go get him."

Slash flew off to go get Enzo back. It was true, thought Bob. Hack and Slash were the stupidest things around.

Bob went back into Dot's Diner and sat down at the first empty booth. He ordered an energy shake from Cecil. Dot came by to drop it off.

"Where's Enzo?" she asked.

"Hack kidnapped him."

"What?"

"Don't worry, Slash's bringing him back right now."

The horrified look on Dot's face went away. "Okay."

WARNING: INCOMING GAME. WARNING: INCOMING GAME.

"Glitch! Where's the game landing? Right here? On the Diner? EVERYBODY OUT!" Bob yelled at the top of his lungs. The binomes jumped out of their seats and ran as fast as they could out the door.

"Where's Enzo?" asked Dot.

"I don't know, but I hope he doesn't end up in the game," said Bob, secretly praying that the game that was descending wasn't Herr Docktor's creation.

Bob and Dot stepped outside the Diner. It was always safer to enter a game from the out of doors.

The cube dropped on them.

They were engulfed in purple. And then, as soon as it had come, the purple was gone. A new world surrounded them.

"Where are we?" asked Dot, surveying the office she was standing in. She turned around. Bob was not there. She rushed around, looking for Bob. He wasn't anywhere. As much as she didn't want to do it, she decided on ReBooting. That might even help her with the name of the game. All in one swift move, she double clicked on her icon and said "ReBoot." She was immediately encased in a cylinder. It came and went like the purple game cube, the only difference being that this tube was green.

She looked down at herself. "Oh, dear," she mumbled. She was wearing a *very* short navy blue skirt, a white blouse, and a navy blue jacket. She was also wearing the highest heels that she had ever seen. She seemed six inches taller than she had been only a few nanos ago.

She decided to look around. She took one step in the heels and promptly fell over. "Ouch!" she said.

She was lying on the ground. She took of the shoes and stood up. She then examined the shoes. They had, at the very least, six inches for the heels, and the most pointed toes that she had seen in a long while. She walked over to the closet and put the shoes in. They were not the tallest pair of shoes that were in the closet. "Who am I?" thought Dot desperately.

*****

"Glitch! Stats!" Bob gave his command, and Glitch followed it, displaying all the information on the game that he could find. Bob stared at it. The Game was called 'The Hunt'. His job was to be the hunted, and try to get away from the hunters, who were inside the huge office building that he was leaning against.

He looked down at his clothes. They seemed meager for the task he was up against.

"ReBoot!"

In an instant, he seemed to be a different person. Black leather jacket, which was covering a dress shirt and tie. The ensemble was strange, but he just ignored it. Bob was also wearing dress pants and running shoes. "Glitch! What the heck am I doing here?"

Glitch was quick to respond. He displayed: You have come to win the game, Guardian Bob. If you do not, many sprites may be nullified.

"Some help that does me," said Bob. "I guess I'll just have to go find Dot."

*****

Herr Docktor looked around. A man was motioning to him. The man was scary looking, and had an oxygen tank. He walked up to him. He couldn't be any worse than MegaByte. He approached him.

"I need you to go get me the twins out of room seventeen," he wheezed.

Herr Docktor had no idea what he was talking about, but didn't show it. The man looked too dangerous to cross.

"I will be right back," he said to the strange, wheezy man. He walked quickly down the hall.

"I need to figure out what this game is," said Herr Docktor, in his German accent. "It looks dangerous."

Dot made her decision and went out the door. She was greeted by a very expensive looking hallway. A game sprite walked up to her.

"Miss Parker," said the sprite, "I think that Jarod's around here somewhere. He just tripped a security alarm outside the premises."

Dot looked around. "So I'm Miss Parker," she thought to herself. She found herself saying, "Okay, Broots."

Where did she get 'Broots' from? she wondered. It was like she was programmed to automatically answer. She kept walking down the hall. She didn't know where she was going, but she just continued to walk. About five minutes later she saw an older looking man that walked up to her.

"Miss Parker! I'm so glad to see you! Quick, you must get down to the main level. Jarod has just entered the building."

Who was this Jarod character? Why was everyone talking about him? And why were they talking to her about him?

"I'll go downstairs, Sydney," she said. Again, she had no clue where she had gotten his name from. "I must have plucked it from the furthest corner of my mind," she said softly, making sure only she could hear her voice.

She walked over to the elevator. However, before she could press the button, the doors opened.

"Herr Docktor? What are you doing in the game? And why the heck haven't you ReBooted?"

"Dot," he said with his thick accent that she was only beginning to be able to understand, "Keep your voice down."

Dot looked back at him curiously. "Why?"

He cleared his voice dramatically. "There is a man. He sent me for some twins. I do not know what I am doing and I HAVE NEVER BEEN IN A NORMAL GAME BEFORE! Do you understand?"

"And you were telling me to keep my voice down," she said scornfully. "Let's go into the elevator and talk in there."

Miraculously, the elevator doors were still open, and so they quickly stepped inside. They began their conversation once again.

"You need to ReBoot," said Dot. "When we get out of the elevator, just double click on your icon and say ReBoot. It's simple."

Herr Docktor nodded. "All right," he said cautiously.

"It will be okay. Trust me. We just need to find Bob."

Herr Docktor's jaw dropped. "You lost Bob? How are we going to win the game if you lost Bob?"

Dot looked at him with a look that could kill. "I'll win the game. I won the Fun House. I can win this little thing. You need to ReBoot. Do it," she said wearily.

Herr Docktor, most definitely not in the mood to argue, double clicked on his icon and said, "ReBoot" very meekly. A green tube enveloped him. Then it disappeared. He looked himself up and down, and did a double take. He was wearing a brown business suit, crisp tie, and leather glove on his hand.

"My digits!" he squealed.

He was missing his left thumb, and was obviously not very happy about it.

"Shush!" said Dot. The elevator dinged and jolted to a stop. The doors slid open. They were in a dark corridor. All of a sudden, Dot got a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. The man she had called Sydney was walking down the corridor. He noticed the two of them and stopped to greet them.

"Hello, Miss Parker, Mister Lyle," he said. "It's a nice surprise to see you working together."

Dot figured out what the cold feeling in her stomach was. "I really don't like whoever Herr Docktor ReBooted as," she said in her mind. "I don't even like him outside of Games."

*****

Bob was swarmed the minute he stepped into the building. "He's back," said some game sprites in amazement. One said, "We had better go and tell Mister Raines and Mister Parker."

All of the game sprites ran off. Bob turned around and left the building quickly. He found what he thought was a good hiding place, and then asked Glitch, with a better question then the last time, what the game was about.

"Glitch: what is the objective of this game?"

Glitch responded with a better answer than he had before.

"You are Jarod, a pretender. You have run away from the research complex that has held you since you were a young sprite. The objective is for you to go into the Centre and retrieve a file folder from Mister Parker's office. In this file is information regarding your family, whom you have not seen for many years. You must go inside, retrieve the file, and get at least fifty kilometers away from this building within the next twelve hours."

"What's an hour?" he asked Glitch.

"About three cycles," responded Glitch.

Bob nodded. "Understood," he told Glitch. "But what's so hard about this game? Why would the user play it if it isn't any challenge?"

Glitch displayed: "You ran away from the research complex. They want you back."

"That must be bad," thought Bob.

*****

Dot turned around. "Sydney," she said, "Why are you so surprised to see Mister Lyle and I working together?"

The old man laughed. "It's just a surprise," he said lightly. "Maybe next time you'll be a best friend to Jarod." He laughed.

Dot took an angry look on her face and stormed off, dragging Herr Docktor along with her.

"I want you to go that way," she said, pointing to Sydney. "Follow him. I want you to find out who we are and what this game is about. I'm going to go try to figure out how to win this thing."

Herr Docktor shook his head. "I can not. I do not want to end up like that." He motioned to a null that was scampering down the hallway, following Sydney.

"Go," hissed Dot.

Herr Docktor shrank back. "All right. But I do not like this idea," he said, walking off. Her cellular phone rang before she had decided what to do.

"What?" she said, surprised at how rude she was.

"Is that you?" said the voice on the other end.

"Bob? It's Dot. Where are you?"

"I'm outside of a big building. I'm supposed to go in and-"

"Wait," said Dot. She went over to the elevator and pressed the button. The doors opened. She pressed the button for something called SL-26. When the car started to move, she pressed the 'STOP' button. "Go ahead," she said.

"I'm supposed to go in and get a file from a certain office. Then I have to get fifty kilometers away from the building."

"Okay," said Dot. "Do you know what your name is?"

"Yes, my name is Jarod and I am a pretender, whatever that means," he said.

"Oh. I think I'm supposed to catch you."

"That would be bad."

Dot continued Bob's favourite saying. "Very bad," she said. "Do you know who's office you are supposed to get the file from?"

"Um," said Bob, checking Glitch, "Mister Parker's."

"This is very bad," said Dot.

"Why?"

"I'm Miss Parker."

"Well, if we both don't want to be deleted, why don't we work together?"

"I don't see why not," said Dot. "I'll get the file for you. I don't see why I should be scared of Mister Parker, whoever he is," she said. "He's my husband, probably. Then I'll bring it out the front door, where you're waiting with a vehicle."

"Sounds good to me," said Bob, hitting the 'end' button on the cell.

Dot hit the button for SL-26 once again and the elevator started moving.

When it stopped, she got out and looked around. There were prison cells everywhere. She couldn't see anyone that she could talk to, so she found the stairs and went up a flight. Again, there were no people around. She went up another flight. No sprites. She sighed and went back to the elevator. She pressed the button and waited for a few minutes before it came. When the doors opened, she was very surprised to see Herr Docktor standing there.

"What did you find out?" she asked.

"Not much," he said. "Just that we are twins and we are supposed to hate each other. And that we have to catch Jarod."

Dot sighed. "Jarod is Bob," she said.

"Oh," said Herr Docktor. "Then I guess we will all be nullified, except for me. I knew that my invention would come in handy some day."

"What invention?" asked Dot.

"I made up a little something for myself in case I should ever be in an unwinnable game. I just copy some stuff off of my icon and onto someone else's icon. Someone that is not being nullified. It's what AndrAIa did with Enzo," he said.

"Oh," said Dot, feeling a little bit annoyed. "I've got to go find a file full of information. Do you know where Mister Parker's office is?"

"Yes. I was just there. Let's go," he said, pressing a button for a floor that was above ground.

"Okay," she said.

They rode up the elevator in silence. It stopped, and the two got out.

"I wish to speak with my father," said Herr Docktor.

_Father!_ thought Dot, _I thought he was my husband!_

The secretary nodded. "You may go in," she said to the two.

They went over to the door. Herr Docktor opened it. "MegaByte," he said quietly. Dot took her queue and ran to the elevator.

"What a pleasure it is to see you," he said. "I didn't think you were coming into the game," he said.

"I didn't mean to," he said. "I was following Hexadecimal and I was going to say hello to her. You know, just being nice. She's family. And I ended up in this horrid game. What is your role here?" he said.

"I am Mister Lyle."

"My son."

"Yes sir. Your son. And as your son, I was wondering if I could take you for, for lunch or something like that."

"But we have just located Jarod! I can't leave now."

"Sir, maybe if you went to lunch you wouldn't have to think of Jarod. You look like you need a break."

MegaByte nodded. "If you say so," he said. "How about the Blues Cove Café? I really want to see their new menu," he said.

Herr Docktor nodded. "As you wish," he said, leading the way out of Mister Parker's office. He looked around after they had left the room. Dot was nowhere to be seen, and neither was the secretary. He was relieved, but didn't show it. He led MegaByte to the elevator and took him out.

As soon as she was sure that they had gone, Dot got up from under the secretary's desk. "That was close," she said to herself. "Lucky for me the secretary had to go to the washroom." Strange, she thought, game sprites didn't, that she knew of, ever have to go to the washroom. She ignored it and went into the office.

"Bob's family. What do we know about Bob's family? Where is that file?" she said quietly. She rifled through the drawers in his desk. No files. She went over to the closet. Nothing but dark suits. She put her hand on the shelf above the suits. Nothing but dust. And more dust. And paper! She pulled it down. It was a bright purple file folder. She opened it. It contained pictures of Bob, a sprite in a military uniform, a small sprite with red hair, a male sprite with brown hair, and an older sprite, with red hair, who was wearing a mask.  
"Hexadecimal," she breathed quietly.

She hastily turned around. The file had been found. Now all she had to do was find Bob. Little did she know what he had gotten himself into.

*****

"Sydney," whined Bob, "Why did I have to come back?"

"Be quiet, Jarod," he said. "I have to call Mister Parker. He went to lunch with Mister Lyle. I don't know why he would do that," he said, "Especially with you so nearby."

Bob said nothing. Sydney looked back at him. "I swear, Jarod. I have never seen you so blue."

"Really?" said Bob sarcastically, looking down at his exposed arm. "I have to go to the washroom," he said.

Sydney nodded. "You know where it is," said Sydney. "Right through that door," he said.

Bob stood up and left for the washroom. "No lock," he said, frustrated. "I guess I'll have to make do without." He took out his cellular phone that Sydney hadn't found. He hit the same speed dial button that he had to call Dot before.

"What?"

"I've been caught. I'm on SL-15 in cell five. Can you get me? There's a game sprite named Sydney looking after me."

"I can try," she said. "I've gotten that file that we need. Now all we have to do is get you out of there."

"Good. Hurry down. I'm going to try to get Sydney to leave."

"Okay," she said. "I'll come right down." She decided to leave out the fact that Hex was his mother.

Bob hit the end button just as Sydney knocked on the door. "Are you okay in there?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Bob, hiding the cell phone and opening the door.

He went back and sat down on the bed, pretending to be sick. "Do you think that I could have something to settle my stomach? Maybe some soda crackers with an energy shake?"

Sydney nodded. "I'll go see if we can get something for you." With that, he left.

"That was easy," thought Bob to himself. "Now Dot had better get here before Sydney gets back."

He waited for a few minutes until he saw a familiar face. "Dot!" he cheered quietly.

"I'm here," she said. "Now how am I supposed to get in? It's got electronic security! I can't get through this!"

"No problem," said Bob. "Glitch: cutter!"

Glitch immediately turned into a cutter, which looked very much like a circular saw. He cut away at the bars until there was a hole in the door that he could fit through. He climbed out and started to run alongside Dot. They ran until they came to the stairs. They went up the stairs and to the back of the building. There was no one around to see them leave through the back door.

"Um, Dot, just a question. How are we supposed to get fifty kilometers away from here in, uh, six cycles?"

Dot looked around. "I think I can help you with that," she said, eyeing the parking lot. "I think that I have a car." She went into her jacket pocket and pulled out a key.

"Do you recognize this?" she asked.

Bob nodded. "Just what I thought. They don't make them any more. It's this." he ran over and hopped into a bright red convertible.

"I hope that this one runs better than yours," said Dot with a smirk.

"Be quiet. Just drive!" he said worriedly.

Dot drove down the only road faster than Bob could ever have driven in his car. Road signs appeared every once in a while. Bob ignored them, mainly concentrating on the file folder that Dot had given him.

"What a strange family," he said to himself. "I'm glad that I'm not really one of them," he said. He turned to Dot. "According to this, I'm your cousin," said Bob.

"I know," she said. "If MegaByte is my father, and he's Hex's brother, who is, strangely enough, your mother, then we are a lot closer than we thought."

Bob shook his head. "It's only a game," he said. "Look, there's the fifty kilometer sign."

Sure enough, the green sign was quickly approaching. There was road beyond it, but they both knew that the game would leave as soon as they passed the sign. Dot slowed down.

"I'm going to walk," she said. The sign was only about fifty feet away. "I don't want to be going sixty miles an hour and then have the car disappear when the game leaves."

"Fair enough," said Bob, stepping out of the car. "Let's go. But why were you talking in metric and then in imperial?"

Dot didn't answer.

They both walked down the road toward the sign. They both passed it together. Then, as soon as the game had come, it was gone. Mainframe was back. The two looked around. They weren't far from Dot's Diner.

"Let's go," said Dot, pulling out her Zip Board. Bob did the same. The two flew back to Dot's Diner. Enzo was at the window, looking sad. When he saw Bob, he immediately cheered up. Bob landed and braced himself. Enzo bounded out of the Diner and straight toward Bob, knocking him over.

"Bob! How was the game? Was it fun? How did you win it?" Enzo asked eagerly.

"Hold on, Enzo. Let's go into the Diner first." Bob stood up and brushed himself off. Dot was already in the Diner, behind the counter. The two went in and sat down at a booth. Cecil came up to them.

"What would you like?"

"Two energy shakes, please," said Bob, without asking what Enzo wanted. Cecil went off to get their orders. At that moment Dot sat down with the two.

"How was the game?" asked Enzo eagerly.

"Very strange," said Dot.

"Why?" asked Enzo.

"Because it was very twisted and hard to win. It's good that you didn't go into that game. It's probably the strangest game that I've ever been in." Bob was talking seriously. "The point was strange and there was a time limit. The User caught me and put me in a prison cell. It wasn't a very nice game."

Dot cut in. "Herr Docktor saved us. MegaByte was in the game, and Herr Docktor lured him off. If he hadn't done that, we couldn't have gotten the folder that let us win the game."

Dot looked at the door. "Bob," she said quietly, "look at them." Bob had no time to look before the two sprites strode up to him.

"Have you seen this sprite?" asked the woman, holding out a photograph of a man. "He goes by the name of Jarod."

"No," said Enzo quickly. "In all of the time I've processed I've never-"

"Oh, shut up," said the woman.

"Don't talk to my little brother that way," hissed Dot.

"I asked a question. Have you seen this man?"

Bob and Dot shook their heads. "Nope. Never," said Bob.

The two sprites that had barged into Dot's Diner left as quickly as they had come. As soon as they had left, both Bob and Dot started to talk.

"That woman," said Bob, "That was who you were in the game! And that man, in the game he was that-"

"Sydney. I know. This is too strange," said Dot. "And the man in the photo was you."

"Was it? He didn't look like me at all. In fact, he was in a racing suit. That's really strange."

Enzo looked at the two strangely. "What was that? Who were they?"

"They looked like some of the sprites that we ReBooted as."

"That's too cool. What was the game like?"

The three were interrupted as Bob looked down at his wrist at Glitch. Phong was staring back at him. "Bob! Someone has opened a portal into the Web directly above the Diner! Go find out what they're doing!"

Bob looked out the window. Indeed, the sky had turned black and was filled with awesome shapes that changed and molded into different colours and patterns. He saw the portal open in the sky. Then he saw what he had feared. A sprite, about his size, was on a Zip Board, going towards the portal. The two sprites that had burst into the Diner were catching up in a hurry. He watched as the three disappeared into the Web. The sky turned back to normal.

"I wonder who they were," said Bob to himself. Dot had come out of the Diner and was now standing beside his side.

"What was that?"

"The sprites that just came into the Diner left through a Web portal that, I'm guessing, the other sprite made. Let's go back inside."

And so they did.

*****

**The End**

Did you like it? Did you understand it? Do you have no idea who the characters are and want an explanation? Something completely unrelated is that my word counter says that this story has 452 paragraphs! :-)

[Email me at nyias@hotmail.com][1]

   [1]: mailto:nyias@hotmail.com



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